James Potter and His Stupid Bloody Hair
by ForgivenOrForgotten130
Summary: Lily Evans, head girl and top in her year, gets detention for the first time in her life, thanks to James Potter. James starts a little game to pass the time while they dust portraits all over the school. Will this game reveal secrets about Lily that even


**Disclaimer: Sadly, not mine…tear…**

Summary: Lily Evans, head girl and top in her year, gets detention for the first time in her life, thanks to James Potter. James starts a little game to pass the time while they dust portraits all over the school. Will this game reveal secrets about Lily that even she never knew about…? OneShot. Seventh Year. LilyJames.

A/N: I haven't written in a while, and I thought I should. I still have some unfinished stories I should probably be working on, but this came to me driving home from a barbeque at like 12:30 in total darkness, and I needed to get it down… Anyway…I've been reading a lot of LilyJames recently, so I decided to write my own. This is the first one I've actually written, so it's probably not the best, but will you please tell me what you think anyway!

_James Potter and His Stupid Bloody Hair_

Lily Evans sat in her Defense Against the Dark Arts class. She could feel James Potter's eyes burning into the back of her head. He kept trying to get her attention- in very rude ways, might I add- but she knew that if she turned around, he would just ruffle his hair and ask her out _again_. Oh, how she hated his hair!

Finally, she gave in. "What?" she hissed. But James' face was livid with fear. Lily was afraid to look; Professor Erkley was looking in their direction, and her head was not facing front. Not looking good for her.

"Ms. Evans… Mr. Potter…if the two of you have _so_ much to talk about, perhaps you would like to do it in detention. My office. Seven o'clock. Tonight."

James shrugged; he was used to it. Lily groaned; she had not gotten detention once in the six and a half years she had attended Hogwarts. Did James _know_ how hard she had worked for that?

After class, Lily waited for James outside the classroom. When he finally came out, surrounded by his friends, he was surprised to find her there.

"POTTER!" shouted Lily. James jumped, but regained his composure quickly with his friends around, and messed up his hair as he did every time he saw Lily.

_Him and that stupid bloody hair,_ thought Lily bitterly.

"Couldn't get enough of me, Evans?" he asked smugly, ruffling his hair _yet again_. Lily groaned.

"Oh, puh-lease! As if. Now stop messing up your hair; it's untidy enough without your slimy fingers running through it every ten seconds."

"No," he said simply.

_Bloody hair,_ she thought again.

"Potter, don't you understand how long I've gone without detention?"

"Your whole life… This will be a good experience for you, Evans…" He paused, then, running a hand through his hair for the hundredth time in two minutes, asked, "Will you go out with me, lilyflower?"

"Ugh!" Lily stormed away.

"Ah, mate, give it up. She'll never go out with you," said Sirius Black. As usual, the Casanova of Hogwarts was attracting many stares from girls as they went by, which annoyed James slightly, because some of the stares were directed at him, and he only wanted Lily to be staring at him like that.

"We'll see about that," said James in a mysterious voice, walking away.

That night, at six-fifty, Lily went up to Remus Lupin, her fellow head. "I won't be able to patrol tonight due to your conceited moron of a friend landing me in detention, so you'll have to tell Headmaster Dippet why I'm not there. Oh, and seeing as James is a prefect, Merlin knows how that happened, you would do well to tell headmaster that he's in detention, too, although that shouldn't surprise him, as James is _always _indetention."

"Will do," said Remus cheerfully.

"Thanks, Remus." Lily headed off to detention for the first time in her life. When James saw her, he waved to Sirius nonchalantly and followed her out of the portrait hole.

"Oi, Evans!" he called, catching up to her in the corridor. "Ready?"

"James, you bloody bigheaded, giant-egoed, conceited, arrogant, little-"

"Hey, Evans, no need for names!" James cried indignantly.

Lily grumbled, annoyed.

James just ran a hand through his already messed up hair. "Evans, will you-"

"No, James Potter, I will not go on a date with you or your bloody hair."

"Hey! What does my hair have to do with anything?"

Lily rolled her eyes.

When they reached Professor Erkley's office, James tried to stop Lily and ask her again, but she shoved past him and went into the office. James followed grudgingly.

Professor Erkley said that they were to dust the Hogwarts portraits without any magic. Ten minutes into the job, and James was already complaining.

"_All_ of them? There's got to be a zillion portraits around here! This is house elves' work!"

"Shut up, James!"

"Want to play a game?" James asked out of the blue, about ten silent but tense minutes later.

"No, not if it involves snogging you in some godforsaken broom closet or something, Potter."

"Hey, have I ever done anything like that?"

"I wouldn't doubt it," Lily mumbled.

"Well, it's a muggle game I wanted to play, actually. You should know of it, considering…" He trailed off.

"Well, what game?"

"Truth. You know, I ask a question-you answer, then it's your turn?"

"Yes I am unfortunately familiar with the game, Potter, but I will not answer all of your questions, as some of them may prove highly embarrassing. You know that. You don't have to answer mine if you don't feel comfortable enough. Those are my rules, or else we don't play at all."

"Fair enough, lilyflower," James replied, running his hand through that hair that annoyed Lily so much. "But I shall answer every question you ask me, for I want you to know as much about me as you wish to know, even if I do not wish to reveal it so easily."

"Whatever…"

Four hours later, when Lily and James had finished dusting the portraits on the ninth floor and had only one floor left to go, the sat down on the ground to rest for a bit, as they had done after they finished every level. They had been playing Truth for a long time now, and they had an immensely long list of made-up rules now. When they finished about the third floor, they listed the five most important rules on paper, mostly for Lily to use afterwards if James decided to break one or two of them, while the rest remained unspoken.

1) You MUST answer every question, even if it is a bit embarrassing…

2) You must not ask anything that you could use to get the other in trouble, however, you may ask things that you could use against the other as blackmail…

3) You cannot speak of anything said here tonight…

4) Any one answer offending one of the players playing need not be answered, unless it offends the answerer and they want to speak of it.

5) James, however you put the question, and however truth-type it is, if you ask me to go out with you, the game is over, and I will speak to you no more for the rest of the night.

"Lily?" James asked as they continued on their quest to rid the school's portraits of dust without using magic.

"Ask away, James." Lily was not accustomed to using his name. She had always called him 'Potter' and he had always called her 'Evans' but now the world was turned upside-down, and Lily suddenly knew the question she was about to be asked. She did not know how, but she was thinking of her answer already.

"Do you like me… like, as _more_ than just a friend? 'Cause I just want to know the truth, with no one else around…and I can accept it if you don't…well, not really, but don't just tell me what I want to hear, and not what you tell everyone else. A friend-or more? I want to know the _truth._" He emphasized the word 'truth' as if he meant it.

_Wait, as if? _Questioned a voice in Lily's head. _What if he _did_ mean it?_

"Well…" she started, but found herself unable to speak. _What do I think of him?_ She thought. Then she caught sight of him nervously running a hand through his hair. Surprisingly, she wasn't angry or annoyed at the sight. He was only nervous.

_That boy and his bloody hair… might just be able to tell me something I've never known… _she thought.

"Well…" she started again. "If I told you I liked you, would you believe me?"

"Probably not."

"If I told you I don't like you, would you believe me?"

"No."

"Then… Oh, you are so confusing, Potter!" she burst out.

_Damn, she's calling me 'potter' again. Not a good sign… okay, gotta calm her down._ "Hey, I didn't mean to get you upset," he soothed her. "Just, well, I don't know. I'll believe you when I can tell you mean it."

A few terse, silent minutes went by, James and Lily dusting portraits by hand. James would have cheated, but their wands were back in Professor Erkley's office so that they couldn't do just that.

Finally, Lily spoke up. "James, I didn't mean to… you know… I didn't mean for that to happen…" She trailed off.

"I know. It's okay, Lily. Don't worry…" he paused uncertainly. "So, will you answer my question? That is, if you still want to play…"

Lily waited, then, "Yes, James, I'll still play… and my answer is… well, it goes like this: I've never liked your stuck-up manor, or the way you run your hand through your hair constantly."

James slowly lowered the had he had been lifting up, and Lily laughed.

"I never truly cared what other people thought about how I felt about you, because… well I was pretty sure I hated you, but I was never really sure, you know? Well, now, I'm starting to rethink it, and… I'm still not entirely sure how I feel… If you can prove that, well, you can act normal around me for a day… well, I might just think-"

"Potter…Evans?" came a snide voice from the shadows. It was Snape.

"Snivell- Severus," James said, his voice dripping with loathing, though he tried to hide it with Lily around, and he considered what she was just saying.

"Not calling me foul names or hexing me? Why is that I wonder…" Snape said mischievously. "I was just wondering why you two weren't at patrol, and now - here you are! So, tell me, Potter, are you two going out now? Is that it? You skived off patrol duty to make out in a broom closet?"

"Now, that is just sick, Severus!" Lily cried. "We have detention, thanks to this…this…well…him!" She waved her arm at James, angry at Snape.

Lily checked her watch. It read 1:45 a.m, which meant that patrol was over. "Go, Severus. Go to bed. Patrol is over now, and you shouldn't be wandering the corridors alone. Now, before I tell headmaster Dippet! We'll be done with our detention and in bed in only a few minutes, and there is NO reason for you to be up and about."

Severus finally left, and after Lily screamed herself hoarse at him, Professor Erkley came to see what the shouting was. When he saw the three teens, he sent all three off to bed, giving Lily and James their wands back. "I was just looking for you to tell you to call it a night. Ah, good, you're done. Here are your wands, and off to bed with the three of you. Severus, didn't patrol end fifteen minutes ago?"

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir," mumbled Snape as he walked away.

Later, long after Snape had gone down the dungeon steps to the Slytherin common room, James asked Lily what she had been saying before Snape had come up.

"Oh, that… I was just saying that perhaps if you acted a bit differently around me for a while, maybe I would… you know, think that…well, you aren't such a bad guy after all."

James nodded as they reached the portrait hole. "I'll do my best for you, lilyflower." He ruffled his hair in that annoying way. "Just… not tonight." And he ran up the boys' staircase, laughing madly. Lily smiled in spite of herself. Maybe James' annoying ways were growing on her. She no longer minded it so much when he did things like that. _Do I fancy him?_ Lily wondered. _Well, I'll have to find out…_

Three days later, Lily watched James warily. He had kept to his promise of 'I'll try,' but Lily wished he would return to normal… well, normal for him anyway. Not that it wasn't at all nice for him to be this way, but… well, it just wasn't James. He never ran his hands through his hair, he never asked her out, he hadn't even said a word to her since he had told her he'd try, and… Lily kind of missed it. She missed all the attention that only James had ever given her. She even missed the annoying way he always messed up 'that bloody hair of his,' as she always referred to it. And she was almost sorry to admit it.

After about a week, the other three Marauders began to worry about him. Finally, Remus decided it was time to talk to someone about James, and Lily was the only one he could think of. After all, hadn't James started acting like this the day after his detention with her?

"Erm… Lily, could I have a word?" he said, approaching her in the corridor after an especially boring History of Magic class.

Lily turned, saw who it was, and waited patiently for him to catch up, laden with books, quills, and parchment.

"What can I do for you?" Lily asked, beginning to walk again.

"Well, I was sort of wondering… if you possibly knew why James is acting so… not James. Did something happen during that detention that's making him act like this?"

"Well… actually, yes. I can't tell you exactly what, but I can say that he's not acting like this because he's, like, upset or something, because that never stopped him before, now, has it?"

"Can you talk to him then? His… well, human behavior is kind of unnerving…" he trailed off.

"Sure, I'll say something." Lily turned to walk away, but something about the look on Remus' face made her turn back. "You don't believe me, do you?" she asked, more than just slightly amused.

"Well… about what?"

"That I'll talk to him."

"Oh, that… well, no, not really."

Lily laughed as James had done a week or so ago, and then walked away without another word to Remus.

Lily spotted James leaning against a suit of armor in the Entrance Hall, watching – almost was that longingly – Peeves dropping water balloons on a couple of first years' heads. Lily could tell that James longed to be doing something of the same nature, so she went up to him as casually as was physically possible when you're as completely nervous as Lily was.

The day before, after she'd left Lupin stunned in the middle of a semi-crowded hallway, she'd done some thinking. She realized that the only possible explanation for her _actually_ missing James Potter's arrogant behavior was that she, in a way, fancied him. _Weird how you sometimes don't understand even your own feelings until you think about them,_ Lily had thought.

"James?" called Lily. His head shot up in surprise.

"Eva – Lily? What are you doing here?" _He looks as though he's trying to hide is hopefulness, but it's showing…_ thought Lily. _Then again, maybe I'm seeing things. Maybe I want him to be hopeful… _Lily shook these thoughts away. _Focus…_

"Well, I just thought that you've behaved yourself long enough, and you can go back to…you know…" She looked pointedly at Peeves, who was now dropping much heavier items on the first years, such as wardrobes and desks. "And, I am pleased to tell you that I can now answer your question from our game of truth a few weeks ago!" Lily announced proudly, in that loud type of voice a newscaster would use.

James smiled weakly. "And?"

"Well, I guess I…" Lily smiled slyly. "Want to guess?"

James sighed. "Uh, you hate me?"

"Noooooooooo…" Lily taunted.

"Um, you despise me?"

"Uh-uh."

"You wish I was dead and out of your life forever?"

"James!" Lily said, now annoyed at his lack of Jamesishness. "What is wrong with you?"

"Pranksickness," he said simply, smiling a little.

"Well, would you feel better if I told you that I fancy you?"

"No, not really, as I would think you're only saying that because I'm bored out of my mind, and you wouldn't ever say that to my face anyway."

"James…" Lily whined. She decided that the only way she would be able to convince James that she really liked him would be to explain the whole thing. "Okay. Listen, because I'll only say this once…"

A lot of rapt listening on James' part that was extremely uncommon for him, some silence in between the two seventh-years' words, and many confused sentences from Lily (a.k.a half an hour later), James understood: Lily wanted him to be normal, but when he was, she wanted him to be himself again. So that meant that she liked him for who he was. He was glad to hear it, too, because he was getting unbelievably bored without his usual pranks, jokes, arrogance, and asking Lily Evans out.

"So?" Lily asked, finally breaking the silence. "Do you have anything to say?" James said nothing; he was too surprised. "Because your friends are worried about you, and…"

"Oh, is that why your telling me this – because my friends asked you to? And here I am, thinking you really mean all of this, when it was probably just something you rehearsed with my friends!" James angrily interrupted, speaking for the first time in almost an hour.

"James, how could you say that? You think any of your friends could have come up with something as… well, as girlish?"

James mumbled something that sounded like 'missus.'

"What?" Lily said, thoroughly confused now.

"Remus!" James practically shouted at her.

Lily, taken aback, took James' hand and led him outside. James looked even more taken aback than Lily.

"What was that all about?" he asked her.

Lily laughed. "You think Remus would've told me to say that?" she asked incredulously.

James looked startled. "Well, yeah, why?"

Lily laughed again. "He told me to talk to you, but when I said I would, he didn't believe me; then I laughed and walked away and he was, like, all freaked out. You can ask him if you like."

James shook his head as if trying to dislodge water from both of his ears at once. "So… wait, you _actually_ fancy me… and you found this out because… you… told me not to act how I usually do… and you… missed the way I… used to be or something… and now you're telling me all this because… my friends are worried about me, and… it's true?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it," Lily said, a grin spreading across her face. "Well… isn't there something you'd like to ask me after sooooo long without doing so?"

"Well, of course there is, am I allowed to prank and stuff now?" James asked, almost laughing.

"James!" Lily complained. "You know what I meant!"

"Do I?" he taunted her.

"James…" Lily said threateningly.

"Yes, lilyflower?" James asked innocently.

Lily almost laughed, but she caught herself in time. "Come on, James, I'm being serious here. You know what I mean. Don't make _me_ ask _you_…"

"Oh, but maybe I'll have to make you ask… oh yes, that would satisfy me indeed," James said brightly, his old self again.

This time Lily laughed out loud. "Come on, James!"

"Fine," he said, a little reluctantly. "Lily, will you _finally_ go out with me?"

Lily, still smiling, nodded, and James swept her into a hug, screaming, "FINALLY! FINALLY! FINALLY!" into the heavens.

James released Lily, who started laughing her head off; people all around them were staring. Some of them – mostly Lily's and James' friends – were smiling, while others – mainly other girls – were scowling at Lily, angry and jealous that she had, at last, agreed to go on a date with James.

Then, it started to rain, and people started running for the castle, hands, books, and bags over their heads, screaming as the rain picked up and poured down harder.

Lily, however, stood rooted to the spot. James looked at her curiously; he didn't mind the rain, but he was starting to wonder why she didn't.

Lily waited for everyone to go inside the castle, then she turned to James. "Want to go for a walk?" she asked, grinning again.

"Are you serious?"

"No, I'm Lily," she replied, laughing.

"It's pouring rain! Don't you want to go inside by the fire?"

"Not yet…"

Lily took James' hand and dashed off, laughing, half dragging him behind her.

Ten minutes later, the two of them were sitting side by side, next to the lake, watching the raindrops pelting the surface of the water. James put his arm around Lily.

"Cold, lilyflower?" he asked.

Lily laughed and inched closer to him in response.

"I've always wanted to be kissed in the rain," Lily mumbled into James' shoulder.

"Really?" James asked. "Now that's interesting. How would you like that to happen?"

And before Lily had time to work out what he had said, he had swooped down and kissed her right on the lips, and before she knew it, she was kissing him back.

"Now how'd you like that?" he asked when they stopped.

Lily laughed and flung her arms around his neck. He promptly kissed her again, and she smiled.

Two hours later, the two wet but happy seventh years made their way back up to the castle. At the big oak front doors, they stopped, and James gave her a kiss on the cheek. Lily giggled.

"James Potter," she said and he stepped back and ran a hand happily through his hair. "I always have hated that hair of yours." And, laughing, the two teens entered the castle together, dripping water all over the place, to sit by the warm fire in the common room.

A/N: There. I'm done. That's it. This was actually two chapters to start with, but I decided to make it a oneshot instead. It took me, like, two months two write, so you people had better review!


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